The Gambling Build – how to embrace randomness and do lots of DPS!

Hello discerning young shapeople! Around the patch release, we revealed the Gambling/Casino build via a second SimulationCraft profile in the stacked sims on SimulationCraft.org. Since then, we’ve been inundated with questions about the build and how it performs. First, I’ll answer a few questions I’ve seen a lot of in Earthshrine lately:

Q: What is the gambling build? Why is it called that?

We had some internal discussions during the 7.2.5 PTR cycle about the best setup for the legendary gloves, Smoldering Heart, to maximise Ascendance uptime. What we came up with was so RNG-bound that playing it felt like you were playing the slots machine at a casino. The gambling build is as follows:

It’s a very simple setup but performs shockingly (pun intended) well. The benefit over the standard, non-gambling setup depends heavily on your stats.

Q: What are the stat ratios for Gambling?

The stat priority varies from the normal build in that haste is highly favoured. Haste and Critical Strike are both valuable with this setup and the T20 set bonuses. The previously said talents and their combinations are ordered by their dps potency.

PE+Echo > EB+Echo > PE+SE >= EB+SE

The wanted stat distribution changes depending on whether you use Echo of the Elements or Storm Elemental. But please be aware that your trinkets can change your wanted crit and mastery stat distribution slightly too.

As outlined above, you should be using Earth Shock at 70-75 Maelstrom. This is the sweet spot between Earth Shock frequency and damage output, giving you the optimal Ascendance uptime without sacrificing DPS. Aftershock also plays a part in this, as a proc of the boots with Aftershock talented will make Earth Shock a Maelstrom generator. Getting a chain of boot procs can cause Maelstrom overflow if casted above 100 Maelstrom, but the probability of this happening from 70-75 Maelstrom is too low to consider.

Trinket List

Q: When should I use the Gambling build over a different talent and legendary setup?

The Gambling build is only better than the normal build in single target scenarios, and is slightly better for heavy movement style fights. You should not use the Gambling build for bosses with AoE.

If there are any further questions, feel free to come to Earthshrine discord and ask anyone with a dark blue name!